Thinking Of Starting A Unit

[Guest]

Hello

 

I work in a Foundation Stage, which is attached to a primary school. Presently we are in a building all by ourselves- just Nursery and Reception. We have been thinking about becoming a Foundation Stage Unit for a while now.

 

Presently we have a Nursery of 26 children who attend 8.50-11.50, and two Reception classes 30 in each. I have contacted lots of FSU near us and have looked it up on the internet and i have lots of interesting reading and ideas but i just wandered if anyone could advise me on ideas of how organisationally we could work our day.

 

Originally we had thought of having family groups who were a mixture of Nursery and Reception children but then our nursery staff do not work in the afternoon so would not be there for group times.

 

Our Nursery teacher has mentioned that she has seen a FSU where the children are in six groups- two of which are solely Nursery children and the other four just Reception. I am not sure that this encompasses the FSU idea.

 

Our EY advisor mentioned that perhaps the childrne could be in different family groups in pm but would this confuse the children?

 

Any ideas would be a great help- i think i have reached information over load especially so close to xmas.

 

Please, any ideas or suggestions would be wonderful

 

 

Many Thanks

[Marion]

Hello

 

I work in a Foundation Stage, which is attached to a primary school. Presently we are in a building all by ourselves- just Nursery and Reception. We have been thinking about becoming a Foundation Stage Unit for a while now.

 

Presently we have a Nursery of 26 children who attend 8.50-11.50, and two Reception classes 30 in each. I have contacted lots of FSU near us and have looked it up on the internet and i have lots of interesting reading and ideas but i just wandered if anyone could advise me on ideas of how organisationally we could work our day.

 

Originally we had thought of having family groups who were a mixture of Nursery and Reception children but then our nursery staff do not work in the afternoon so would not be there for group times.

 

Our Nursery teacher has mentioned that she has seen a FSU where the children are in six groups- two of which are solely Nursery children and the other four just Reception. I am not sure that this encompasses the FSU idea.

 

Our EY advisor mentioned that perhaps the childrne could be in different family groups in pm but would this confuse the children?

 

Any ideas would be a great help- i think i have reached information over load especially so close to xmas.

 

Please, any ideas or suggestions would be wonderful

Many Thanks

 

There are a lot of different models for foundation stage units. When we worked as your nursery teacher is suggesting we called ourselves an early years unit but didnt consider ourselves to be a FSU.

The model we chose is fully integrated (although Im still not sure we truely are) but thats the name weve been given by LA.

The good advice we were given (which we didnt fully listen to) was to do things slowly and not rush into it. They suggested we take a full year to plan how we wanted to work involving parents in every step. We did involve parents but did it over a term Our children seperate for a short time at the beginning and end of each session but otherwise work together in mixed groups working by ability rather than age.

[Guest]

Hi

 

Thanks for your quick reply.

 

Where could i find a list or details of such models. I have found articles and obviously forum ideas on here and the standards info and questions and answers sections. I have example copies of fsu policies and stuff.

 

I suppose what i am lookinf for is prob the impossible- an idiots guide, a whats what- list of ten ways it could run.

 

I know it is a what works for you model. And i am very keen on this but i keep thinking of the ooh what about that.

 

I want Nursery and Rec to integrate as much as poss but how would i manage that if Nursery are part time?

 

Does anyone else have this problem?

[Guest]

Hello Blossom.

Hope I'm doing this correctly as this is the first time I have posted!

I thought you might be interested to hear about my setting.

I currently job share the Senior Practitioner role in our Extended School.

We opened in June in our own building within the school grounds.We run 8 a.m. to 6p.m.Providing wrap-around care as well as pre-school.We too are financially independent but work closely with the head of Foundation stage and the headteacher.So far it is working really well.I know of several pre-schools that are looking into similar set ups.Sounds like this might help your situation. Good luck!

 

P.S.We've just has our first OFSTED good in all areas.

Sorry guys first post and got it wrong .Meant to post to in relocation of pre-school to Maggie. Apologies.

Edited November 24, 2006 by Guest

[Marion]

Our nursery are part time too

they attend 9-11.30 and 12.45-3.15

they way we work is we have a literacy focus on the morning one week and a numeracy in the afternoon the next week we have a numeracy focus in the morning and a literacy focus in the afternoon so all nursery children have the same experiences without reception year repeating things and have literacy and numeracy each day. other activities can obviously run for the full day so that all children can access them

[Guest]

Yeah I think one of our problems is that we do not have a pm nursery- which we would love. Unfortunately we cn not open one though because although lots of children attend a Nursery in the pm, when it was researched it was said that if we opened a pm nursery then we would be taking places away from other nurseries. Which is a shame!